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I was diagnosed with PD in 1993. I continued to work full time for several years, but made some Americans with Disabilities Act requests, including "flex time." (I was not in a management. My employer's position was that without a ADA request, Federal labor law required regular hours for my position.) As my Parkinson's advanced, through ADA requests, I gradually reduced my hours from full time 40 hours to 32 hours then 20 hours/week. Fortunately I had bought into a disability insurance policy before PD, so my income was not reduced. Frankly though at a certain point, I think a worker with PD spends so much energy battling with management over ADA requests that it is better to take SSA disability retirement and devote the energy to your family. The union that I formerly belonged to took the position that they couldn't do much to help, because it "wasn't covered by the contract." I guess a good result of the record of my battles at work was that my SSA application was approved. But the waiting period didn't begin until I completely stopped work. Again it was a good thing for my family's financial position that I had the private disability policy. My wife's medical insurance through her employer does not cover me, so I had to use a small IRA that I had to continue my medical insurance while I waited for Medicare coverage. I like my HMO, but the coverage from it with Medicare is much more affordable than it was when I had to pay for full coverage myself. Charley 52 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn